The reason i suggested a gallon mixing can was for the body shop to mix your base coat in...3/4 of a quart, reduced is 1 1/2 quarts spray able and the can sizes go pint, quart, gallon....I chose gallon so that the body shop could just add 3/4 of a quart or reducer in the gallon can.

You could get 1 quart paint cans for mixing primer and clear, but they are a bit more difficult to clean than the plastic mixing cups...and the plastic cups are a bit cheaper...not much but a bit. We can compensate for the bit of inaccuracy of the tapered plastic 1 quart mixing can.

When you go to the body shop, the most important thing is to have them bring out the variant deck of colors for your car. You will want to take the color chips and hold them up to the gap between the fender and the door and match to the door. Look at the color in sunlight...at 45 degree angles both ways from about 3 feet away, that's called checking the flip...also look at the chips head on You will notice that some of the variant chips will have a much darker or lighter color when looking at them from the side compared to the look head on. Another thing to check for is the size of the flake itself...some variants will have a larger metallic used in the formulation. The best color match is the chip that looks best at all angels and head on and has the same size metallic. I'm sure that the fellow at the body shop can help.

If the fellow at the body shop is putting the money in his pocket and you don't need a receipt...paint and reducer, plus about 6 spray out cards...3/4 of a quart of silver at $65.00 about body shop cost, 3/4 of a quart of reducer...about $15.00 body shop cost, mixing time, time to check the variants...if you paid a retail store there would be taxes...so anything under $100.00 is fine....after all, you brought the gallon mixing can...LOL Also ask the guy at the body shop for a piece of masking paper 4 feet by 3 feet...for hanging on the wall to set up your paint gun...have you got any tape at home to stick this paper on the wall? And don't forget to turn the primer tonight....

#12, if your at home depot...pick up a couple of stir sticks...they might even give them to you....

Okay so I went to the body shop for the paint and it didn't really go as expected.

First I asked him if he had the variant color chips for the cars for me to look at and match the best one. He said they do not have that. And he said that color chips are just print outs. So it is not like you are comparing to an actual painted chip. So I asked him how do they match the best variance of the color. He said that they look up online and see what is the percentage of people using the variance for a certain color code. And that is most likely the best match. He said they paint it on and get an idea and mix it differently to match better. In conclusion he was saying to go based on the percentage of people using the variance and go with the highest percentage to pick the color.

Then I just asked him for prices. And he gave me prices for a quart of paint in my color code. He gave me two prices, one good quality and one cheaper quality. For the good quality: 120/quart. For the cheaper quality: 70/quart. He suggested in my case it is better to just go for the cheaper since I am not really blending it or anything. He gets the paint from the same SW store near me. So he said I could just go pick it up from there if I wanted.

One good thing that came out of it was that I got mixing cups and a mixing stick.

What do you think about his explanation? Should I just go to the store and pick it according to what he said or ask the store if they have the chips for me to look at?

Wrong answer...variance chips are not inked, they are sprayed...if SW doesn't...I'm understanding why they don't do well in the automotive aftermarket. All major paint manufacturer's have sprayed out color chips that are given to the body shop...percentage...on line....BS...what would the point be if they went on line, choose the most popular color and it's wrong....either this guy is lying to you or SW is 25 years behind every other paint company.

Go to the SW store, I bet they have chips...that are sprayed on....get a price, but, they won't reduce it for you, did you say they had reducer by the quart?

I honestly can't believe that SW would be that far behind....I think he's lying....if the store doesn't have chips...go somewhere else...PPG, Dupont, Nexa...they all have sprayed out variance chips.

I just spoke to an Ex SW rep here on the forum..."MartinSR"....he said when he was a Rep years ago they had a great assortment of color chips...like I said, I think the guy at the shop was lying to you....Was it a real small shop? Color chips are expensive and maybe the SW store didn't want to make the investment of color chips in a smaller location.

Check with the store, I'm sure your going to get better results, unfortunately, they will only mix pints quarts or gallons...not that they can't mix less...often they just won't.

Okay I just got back from the store. As you said they did have the chips. I tried to match them to my car. One of them seemed to be the closest. It did seem a little darker from one angle. But overall it was a good match.

So I think you're right about the shop, either it was lying or just not willing to go through the trouble of helping.

I didn't buy the paint though. It was $134 for a quart. I just thought that was really expensive. I am going to try to find some other paint stores also. Maybe someone has a closer match or at least a lower price.

The store did have a cheaper brand but that brand has no variances and just has one color in the color code. Also the adhesion promoter was very expensive. The aerosol type (around 18 oz) I think was $28. A gallon was $135. Is that the normal price for this product? It just seemed high so I wanted to ask before I buy it.

The price of the paint is retail...Body shops do get about 30% discount and I was thinking you needed 3/4 of a quart of base coat....so if you do the math, 3/4 of a quart at $138.00 = $114.00 minus a 30% discount = a discount of $34.20 or the paint costing $79.80 for the amount you need. Fairly close.

SPI sells adhesion promoter for $22.35 a quart, part number is 600-4.

The cheaper brand will almost certainly not match. On some of the manufacturer's label, it even says for overall use only. Try and find a PPG paint jobber and ask for Deltron...it's a decent product and could very well be priced better. Even tell them that you have an Ex PPG rep helping you...you might get some % off. The only problem is that their reducer comes only in gallons...ask if they can reduce it for you. I know I had jobbers that would provide that service for their walk in customers.

There are different things that a painter does to get the flip of the color closer, adding more tone controller will adjust that flip but that is something that is done at the body shop/painter level and it's something that you wouldn't have access too.

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, and it does bother me that you where lied to...I hate that...so try a PPG Paint store and see what they say.

You are right about the price. The body shop did get it for cheaper when he told me the price. I will try to find other places I can get the paint from and try to look for PPG also. If I can't find anything then I will resort to SW and try to get the color through the body shop if possible to have it a little cheaper.

I think I'll order the adhesion promoter from SPI. Their shipping was fast and good. Let see where the digging takes me and then I'll update you. Thanks

Before you order anything from from SPI...let's see if we can get whatever paint you purchase reduced...I'd hate to see you buy a gallon of reducer at a PPG store...(also check to see what SE wanted for a quart of their reducer)...when you only need a quarter of that at the most. A gallon of slow reducer from SPI is $46.65 a gallon of medium reducer is $37.65...so let's see what you can come up with...if some paint store is going to charge you for a gallon of reducer...expect almost twice the price.

Yeah definitely try to find a PPG store. I have bought several different silvers and charcoal colors in DBC in the $90 a quart range, some even cheaper. Now, the red Impala I am starting on Monday is $235 a quart

I'm having a difficult time trying to find stores that sell PPG. Some auto body shops that use PPG come up. But I can't contact them since they are closed on Sundays. Does PPG have retail stores similar to SW or my best bet would be body shops?

PPG would have Paint supply stores...in fact PPG and Dupont have the largest market share of all the North American automotive paint suppliers so I'm certain that there would be more PPG and Dupont supplier's than SW.

What you could do is call a local body shop that uses PPG and ask where they get their product or type in PPG Paint & (your city) in a Google search...hit the map button after it loads and you should get a bunch of local PPG suppliers pin pointed on the map.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Hot Rod Forum : Hotrodders Bulletin Board forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name (usually not your first and last name), your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.